


an abundance of ladybugs

by sun_summoning



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng, F/M, Ladybug Adrien Agreste, Minor Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 00:43:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17991620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sun_summoning/pseuds/sun_summoning
Summary: "So we just have to fight off the minions, defeat the dark wizard, send the B, C, D, and E teams off to their respective dimensions, and then blow up said portal." Chat Noir nods. "No biggie."





	an abundance of ladybugs

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Into the Spider-Verse.

 

i.

If they’re being honest, patrol is just an excuse to hangout. It’s their chance to run around on rooftops at night without the usual fanfare and to test the limits of their weapons and abilities. For all intents and purposes, Hawkmoth only functions during the daytime considering that’s when those negative emotions seem to run most rampant. They fly over the arrondissements, racing and reeling, with wind whipping at their cheeks. 

Currently, Chat Noir is spiralling. He’s been at it for the past two hours, going on about parallel universes and what they might be like in them. “You know, out there is a dimension where I’m Ladybug and you’re Chat Noir.”

Ladybug smirks. “And I’d _still_ be faster than you.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that.”

“There’s probably a dimension where neither of us are Ladybug or Chat Noir,” she adds to the ever-growing list of who they might be instead. 

“That dimension sounds like it sucks.”

“Yeah, it probably does.”

“There’s one where I’m a…” He pauses, trying to think of another animal.

“Panther?"

“Yeah, sure.” Chat Noir looks down at himself. “Although then my costume would probably be the same.”

“That’s fair. What about a puppy, kiitty?” she suggests with a laugh.

“Don’t make me put you in the dog house.” Chat Noir launches himself onto the next roof and Ladybug follows suit. He pauses, considers her spots, and then suggest, “In another dimension, you’re a butterfly—wait, no!” He looks excited. “You’re a _spider_.”

Ladybug giggles. “Yes, and as I repair the city with my miraculous spider move, the citizens of Paris flee in terror from my army of tarantulas.”

“Myself included.”

“Aw, you afraid of some creepy crawlies?” Ladybug croons, trailing two fingers up his arm with a feather light touch.

It’s enough to make him shudder. “Do you think Hawkmoth is afraid of spiders?”

“We can test that when we finally catch him in our web.” Ladybug threads the string of her yoyo into a cat’s cradle just for fun. “In another dimension, we’ve probably caught him by now.”

“ _Wow_.”

“Sorry.”

“Thanks for ruining our alternate dimension game,” Chat Noir grumbles. He crosses his arms, visibly pouting at her. 

Ladybug flicks his bell. “In another dimension, we’re probably still playing.”

“That’s probably this one.” Chat Noir doesn’t stay down for too long, and because he’s himself, he comes back with a charming smile. He leans on his extended baton and winks. “You know, in another dimension, we’re playing this game on a date.”

Ladybug rolls her eyes and shoves him off the roof to get ahead of their race.

.

.

.

When they’re both back to where they started, crouched among the gargoyles of Notre Dame, Chat Noir waves goodbye and heads west, and Ladybug crosses the bank to pretend she doesn’t live on the other side.

When she finishes wandering around, she starts swinging home. She has a bit of homework to do, but Ladybug's fortunate enough to be naturally smart, and that all comes fairly easily. 

In another dimension, she thinks glumly, she didn’t have homework at all. That Ladybug probably stayed in the library after class or at lunch and did her work immediately because she knew she had patrol that night.

And in another dimension, maybe she wouldn’t have homework at all. Maybe she could be home schooled. But that train of thought derails fairly quickly as Ladybug recalls how sad Adrien gets whenever he briefly alludes to those times.

And maybe in another dimension, Ladybug had plans to do her homework with someone special. In her mind, she pictures herself seated on her floor with Adrien, their textbooks in front of them while he tries explaining a concept to her that she actually already knows about. Adrien’s good at physics, but Ladybug is Marinette who is Ladybug and so she knows _all_ about physics, especially on a more practical level. She’ll go downstairs to get them something to snack on and when she comes back, Chat Noir will tell her all about gravity and make some stupid joke about her falling for him and because they’re on science, she’ll tell him he’s sodium funny—

Ladybug makes a noise of panic as Chat Noir intrudes on her fantasy homework date. She easily dismisses that thought to go off on a tangent along the lines of “why am I doing homework on a date though?”, so she fails to notice when someone literally materializes out of nowhere and crashes into her. 

“Shit!” Ladybug curses, finding herself and the other person tangled up in her yoyo. “I’m so sorry!”

“No, that was completely my fault!"

When Ladybug loosens the string enough, she unravels it entirely and drops them both to the ground and on their feet. Before her is an older woman, probably somewhere in her late-twenties, and looking uncannily like her. 

Ladybug blinks, then shakes her head. She falters before she apologizes. “Er, can I help you get home, ma’am?”

The woman seems to return her stare of confusion. She assesses Ladybug with wide blue eyes, from the top of her head to her toes and then scanning each of the dots. Her brow furrows, then she shakes her head. 

“Home,” she repeats, as if testing the word on her mouth. She looks down at her hand, and Ladybug follows her stare. 

Soon, bubbles of black erupt around her wrist. Ladybug tenses, expecting an akuma, but the woman clenches a fist, groans in pain, and the bubbles disappear.

“What was that?” Ladybug wonders.

“Oh, nothing,” the woman mutters. “Just, like, the foundation of my being getting torn up and restitched back together to suit a dimension it doesn’t belong in and to remind me that if I stay here too long then I will literally _die_."

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Sorry. I’m…drunk. Yeah, that’s it. I’m drunk."

“Um, are you alright, ma’am?” Ladybug tries once again. “You…” She frowns, suspicious. “You literally fell out of the sky.”

“What? Me? No!” The woman plays with her hair. “That was a window.”

“That’s not exactly better.”

“Still a window though.”

“I don’t think it was…”

The woman nods vigorously and smiles through clenched teeth. She runs a hand through her dark hair. “I’m fine,” she assures. “Thank you for your concern... _Ladybug_.”

“You’re welcome?” 

She seems to have said something very wrong, because soon the woman’s smile seems even faker. 

“Would you mind walking me to the metro station? I was, um, supposed to be at my fiancé’s house hours ago but, uh, partied too hard with my friends which is why I am saying weird things right now. Because I’m drunk. And I fell out of a window. Not the sky.” She purses her lips, seemingly annoyed with herself, but then she dons another plastic smile. "I’d really appreciate it,  _Ladybug_."

There’s something about her tone that makes this feel like a test, like perhaps this woman doesn’t actually believe she’s Ladybug. Ladybug nods, latching her yoyo to her hip and then moving by the woman’s side. She hopes to walk with her a bit longer and figure out what her deal is.

The woman shakes her hand, acting more like a colleague than a fan.

“I’m Bridgette, by the way.”

.

.

.

.

.

ii.

For the past two weeks, Gabriel has been the victim of vandalism. It’s just the billboards though. Particularly, the cologne ones. Ladybug scowls when she sees Adrien’s enlarged face tainted by a spray painted kiss mark and a crude cat head that’s proven to be a signature. If she’s honest, the graffiti is tasteful enough and can even look like it’s actually part of the ad. But the hot pink hardly screams “radiant” or “carefree” so frankly, Ladybug finds it offensive.

Chat Noir, on the other hand, finds it hilarious.

“It’s not funny!” Ladybug snaps.

Her partner shrugs. “The ad itself is funny. Who uses a fifteen-year-old to sell cologne?”

“A perfectly respectable fashion house!”

“Yeah, because when people think cologne, they think ‘long-limbed bean boy’ over ‘grown ass man’.”

Ladybug clenches her fists, offended on her friend’s behalf. She glares at Chat Noir and then glares at the tarnished billboard. “Well I’m sure Adrien worked really on that ad! It’s just really rude that someone is trying to ruin his hard work!”

“Right, right.” She figures his dismissive tone means he didn’t even hear her, so she’s not surprised when he holds the screen on his baton up to her face. “Look, this still from the commercial even became a meme.” 

Ladybug grabs the baton and is horrified to see the image of Adrien jumping superimposed over an image of a group of alligators, some video game poster of everyone leaping, and a multitude of other silly pictures. 

“This is terrible!”

“This is gold,” Chat Noir retorts, scrolling through the pictures and snickering to himself. “This is the best legacy a guy could ever hope for."

“Ugh!” Ladybug shoves him. “Let’s just finish patrol, kitty.”

He nods. Because it’s a solo night, he says he’ll take the left bank and she takes the right. She’s running over the rooftops much like Adrien did in his commercial. That’s when she sees his _attacker_ in person.

“You!”

To their credit, the vandal doesn’t even startle. They look over their shoulder, and Ladybug audibly groans when she sees them in a what looks like a stupid Chat Noir cosplay, complete with electric green sclera. 

Ladybug lands a few feet away from the vandal. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

The vandal faces her fully, and Ladybug frowns at this girl’s carefree grin. She dons a worn, green hoodie that bears the logo of the brand she’s been terrorizing. Her black pants look like leather and her boots seem almost armoured. Then as she sprays over the stencil of those telltale lips, Ladybug catches clawed fingers and a ring on her left thumb. 

“Art,” the vandal finally replies, pausing to pull up her hood. It’s oversized, probably taken from a man, and it covers the ridiculous cat ears on her head.

Ladybug grits her teeth, infuriated by the vandal’s cavalier attitude. 

“You know, Plagg likes to put me in green,” she says as she sprays the last touches of her handiwork, “but I _much_ prefer pink.”

Normally Ladybug might leave the vandal with a warning, but this is personal and frankly this girl is annoying, so she decides that perhaps the police should be the one to pick the punishment.

She moves to grab the vandal’s hand, but then it’s surrounded by a familiar ring of black bubbles. The vandal hisses, and when the bubbles fade away, she darts back with a needlessly showy backflip. 

“Really?” Ladybug says, exasperated.

The vandal laughs. Ladybug lunges forward and she sidesteps with some more acrobatics.

“You’re only making this harder for yourself!”

“Am I though?” The vandal reaches for something on her back, hidden by the hoodie, and then brandishes a familiar-looking baton, slick and shiny and adorned with the same adorable little paw print.

“You really went all out on the cosplay,” Ladybug muses. “Chat Noir would love this." The vandal presses a button, prompting it to extend, and Ladybug nods in approval.

“Later, tater!” she yells, launching off the ledge.

“Wait!” Ladybug follows her down, baffled that this girl would be so eager to avoid vandalism charges to just _jump_. 

When she fails to catch anyone or find anyone on the roof she lands on, Ladybug looks forward. There, crouched on the next building, is the vandal. Her hood has fallen, giving her a catlike silhouette before the moon. 

Ladybug considers the distance, and knowing no normal person could have made that leap, she stiffens. “Who _are_ you?” she asks, certain this girl is much more than just some vandal, but not quite a villain.

She shrugs, lips pursing as she drops the act of a carefree kitty. “Nobody special.”

She runs off. Ladybug tries to follow her, but she’s frustratingly elusive. She has half a mind to call Chat Noir and tell him to be on the lookout for a girl who might be his biggest fan, when she catches sight of Adrien’s vandalized ad. She pulls herself back onto the billboard’s ledge. She takes in the silly pink lips painted on Adrien’s cheek and the much smaller image of a cat below it. 

But this time it’s different. 

Ladybug moves in closer, and in a bright green similar to the girl’s eyes (to Chat Noir’s eyes), she finds looped letters spelling out Lady Noire.

.

.

.

.

.

iii.

While their primary purpose is to stop Hawkmoth, retrieve the misused butterfly miraculous, and return it to the guardian for safekeeping, sometimes Ladybug and Chat Noir stop local crimes that they might come across, and sometimes they get roped into helping out with other magical problems. Generally those missions come through Master Fu (or as Chat Noir once called him, their “handler” for matters of the magical community). 

But sometimes they come across those situation on their own.

“Actually, it was the internet,” Chat Noir corrects. “Read about it on the dark web. Weird cult, magical portal thing. I’m basically a hacker.” 

“So, like, you troll people on reddit?”

“Anyway, something about noticing a strange group of robed minions congregating around here.”

“If they’re really an issue, I can’t see how someone managed to post about it on reddit, Chat Noir.”

“That's dark, my lady.”

“We better check it out though.” 

They go to the place that was mentioned and find the abandoned chapel that had been described. It’s eerily quiet inside and lit only by the moonlight. When they creep closer to the altar at the front, they find a small trap door behind it. Chat Noir swallows, knowing they need to go inside, and while the two of them are generally a happy blend of fearless and foolish, somehow this feels a little more frightening than usual.

“Ladies first?” Ladybug offers, lifting the door. 

She hadn’t been trying to call out Chat Noir, but he slides in front of her all the same. “You snooze, you lose,” he says, heading down the stairs without her.

She rolls her eyes and follows him, half tempted to scold him for not actually looking around carefully before walking. The stone walls are lined with torches that illuminate the never ending steps.

“I’m pretty sure this is where _The Nun_ was filmed,” Chat Noir grumbles.

Ladybug leans in close to his ear as she whispered, “Scared, kitty?”

He tenses. “Not a bit.”

Ladybug nods. “It’s a little creepy, yes, but I’ve got your back.”

That seems to perk him up. Chat Noir grins at her over his shoulder, and his green eyes seem to glow in the dark. Actually, his entire face does. But as they descend down the last few steps, Ladybug realizes it’s not Chat Noir’s eyes glowing so much as it is a swirling pool of green reflecting against them.

“What…” Ladybug pulls Chat Noir back by his tail because past experience has dictated he shouldn’t be trusted around pools of water. “What _is_ this?” She looks around the chamber, finding it largely devoid of any sort of life. There are the torches along the wall, one large door at the other side of the pool, and then the set of stairs where they came from. Her lips fall into a grim line. “Whatever this is…”

“It can’t be good,” Chat Noir says. “It’s…” He waves his hands around as he squints. “Very Lazarus pit-ish.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Means we better stay away, Ladybug.” The green glow against his eyes makes him look feral. “This stuff probably brings back the dead.”

“Nonsense.”

Ladybug slides into a fighting stance at the sound of a foreign voice, and Chat Noir immediately does the same with his back to hers. She looks to the source of the voice and finds a man holding a staff staring at them from the staircase. He’s garbed in emerald robes trimmed with black and gold and hardly looks like he’s part of this world. But from down in this cave below the city, none of them seem to be part of their world.

“Bringing back the dead is the poor man’s cause,” the man says. “We wizards seek not those that are dead, but the otherworldly instead.”

Chat Noir makes a face. “How is that any better? That sounds exactly the same.”

“Nonsense.”

“No, for real.” Chat Noir shakes his head. “Technically bringing back the dead means bringing someone back from another world. Isn’t that your cause?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then they’re the same thing.”

“No they—”

“You, sir, are not valid.”

The man’s face grows red and Ladybug fights back a giggle at Chat Noir’s ability to antagonize their enemies. The wizard waves his magic staff around and suddenly a number of robed minions emerge from the shadows. There’s about a dozen or so, but Ladybug knows she and Chat Noir can handle them easily.

Naturally, Chat Noir works on the offensive, knocking them down with his staff and kicking and punching everyone out of the way. Ladybug, however, mostly dodges their attacks and uses her yoyo to lasso them together. She keeps her eye on the wizard though, because if he summons some more, then this whole thing is pointless. When Chat Noir starts dealing with the remaining few from her half of the battle, Ladybug runs to where the wizard stands. He waves his staff again though, prompting another shadow minion to come forth from the ground.

Ladybug skids to a halt, nearly crashing into the new minion. It hits her with its staff, and when she stumbles back, she trips over a rock and into the green pool. 

“No!” the wizard shouts, just as Chat Noir yells her name.

She sees him reach for her over the green liquid, but her vision is filled with bubbles when she tries calling out to him. She tries to swim back up, only to be held in place by rings of black bubbles circling her limbs. She thrashes, eyes open, seeking out her partner’s hand trying to save her, but instead sees everything else.

A woman anxiously playing with engagement ring and asking Tikki why she can’t tell her fiancé her secret—Ladybug from over Chat Noir’s shoulder, untransformed as they switch their miraculous after Stoneheart’s defeat—a frightened boy dry heaving in an alley outside Master Fu’s, one hand holding the wall for balance while the other remains tightly clenched—Marinette herself, terrified as Chat Noir and Alya are in danger and all that stands in between them and no good is just her—a little girl waiting beside a robot, a USB key in its computer and the screen showing a successful download—I don’t want to be Ladybug anymore—“Maybe you should be Ladybug instead.”—I have to be Ladybug now who else is there—I can’t breathe—I can’t breathe— _I can’t breathe_ —

Ladybug screams when she’s finally pulled out of the pool, Chat Noir holding her against him while one hand stays on his weapon to keep the wizard at bay. 

She whips around wildly, looking for any traces of the worlds and the people she saw during that minute in the pool.

“You okay, my lady?”

Ladybug stares at Chat Noir, still shaking, still disoriented. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” Chat Noir smiles. “Because I do believe I beat you today.” He nods to the fallen forms of the various shadow minions. “I’d say that’s what—nine for me, four for you. You go, Ladybug.” 

She tries to laugh, but ends up coughing up some of that green water instead. 

“You fools!” the wizard bellows. His face contorts with rage. “You’ve tainted the portal!”

“Portal?” Chat Noir echoes. 

The wizard doesn’t reply. He growls at them and with a wave of his staff, he disappears into green flames.

“Too much green,” Chat Noir comments. “I get it, you have an aesthetic, but come on.”

“You’re just mad that he’s encroaching on your territory.”

“I mean I don’t own black and green, but he’s just being disrespectful. After all, I do wear it best.”

Ladybug giggles and Chat Noir cups her cheek. 

“You were down there for a while, my lady.”

“Yeah?”

“And Mr. Wizard over there wouldn’t even let me get you out even though that seemed to be what he wanted anyway.” Chat Noir shakes his head. “Honestly, the logic with these villains is astounding.”

Ladybug watches the way the minions’ bodies fade back into the shadows, likely never truly physical beings to begin with. She steps closer to the edge of the pool and frowns at the tainted reflection of her red and black suit. 

“So this is a portal, huh?” Chat Noir comes up beside her, tapping his chin pensively. “Interesting. I wonder where it leads. We have to be careful though.”

Ladybug draws back, mildly impressed. “Are you sure you’re actually my kitty?” She pokes his cheek and he slants an annoyed stare her way. “Sounds like you actually want to use some foresight here.”

“We don’t even know the  _lore_ , Ladybug! What kind of portal is this? How did it get here? Who made it? Summoned it? Was it that wizard? Is he a dark wizard? Are there a bunch of wizards--”

“Gosh, you’re such a nerd.”

He grins. “Just being thorough.”

Shaking her head, Ladybug tugs him along. “Come on,” she says. “We need to get out of here and tell Master Fu about this place. He’ll get the proper authorities to come take care of it.”

“Yeah, I think Wayne Enterprises has a branch for green glowing pits.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” Chat Noir replicates the wizards motions with his own staff, yielding nothing to nobody’s surprise. He shrugs. “The stairs then?”

“Was there an alternative?”

“You’ve got to think with portals, my lady.”

.

.

.

The next day, Marinette feels fine. Same with the day after that. She’s been looking out for side effects from having fallen into that green glowing pit, but so far she’s felt exactly the same and the dark wizard hasn’t reappeared. Tikki has reassured her over and over that she’s fine as well. Chat Noir sends her a message to make sure she’s okay, and Ladybug tells him that she is.

Maybe the problem isn’t with Ladybug. 

Maybe the problem is in the world around her.

Because since that night with the portal and even the nights before then, Marinette is certain she’s been seeing other people running along the same rooftops as she and Chat Noir. People that she’s certain she saw in her visions when she was forced under the water.

She raises this concern to him and while he seems tense for a moment, he soon laughs it off.

“It’s probably just Rena Rouge or Queen Bee,” he suggests. 

Ladybug nods slowly. “You’re right,” she says, knowing he’s wrong. After all, she knows for a fact that their respective miraculous are with Master Fu. “It’s probably just them.”

“Of course I’m right.” He puffs his chest out, looking smug as he smiles, and somehow it all feels like a show.

Still, when she makes her rounds across Paris, she’s certain she sees Lady Noire, this time sans the spray paint and mostly just wandering. 

She also thinks she’s seen another Ladybug, also in red and black, also with dark hair in pigtails, just much older than she is. 

And then there’s the matter of the other, _other_ Ladybug. The one who looks nothing like her but eerily like Chat Noir. He, like all the others, has only ever been spotted from a distance and always gets away from her before she can confirm whether or not she’s been seeing things.

.

.

.

A few days later, the other, other Ladybug drops down beside her when she moves onto a darkened roof as an invitation. Up close, she sees his spotted mask and the black trims to his suit. The yoyo is strapped to his side and she knows for certain who he is.

“I knew I wasn’t crazy.” Ladybug shakes her head. “How long have you been waiting to catch me alone?”

“Two days.”

Ladybug frowns. “I think you’ve had plenty of opportunities.”

“Not the right timing.”

“You’re not from here, are you?”

“No.”

“Is this because of the pool?”

He cocks his head to the side. “You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

Ladybug frowns, annoyed with his short answers so far. “Well then,” she says, getting straight down to business, “how can I help you?"

“By sending me back to my universe and destroying the portal right after.”

“But I…” She panics for a moment. “I told Master Fu about the portal. Surely by now he’s gotten someone to come take care of it.”

He shrugs. “I took care of them.”

“You killed them?!”

“What?” The other, other Ladybug finally drops whatever pretence of a cool guy act he’s so set on showing. “Of course not!”

“What did you do?’

“I…er…don’t worry about it.”

“Of course I’m going to worry about it!”

“Look, you can trust me, okay?”

“I’m pretty sure Volpina said the same thing to me before.”

“First of all, how dare you compare me Volpina. Second of all, _how dare you_ compare me to Volpina.” 

“Fine!” Ladybug stomps up to him, hands on her hips, a glare across her face. She tries her hardest to look intimidating and is utterly infuriated to find he’s a full head taller than her. But Marinette’s frightened bigger boys before and she makes no move to stand down. “Who are you then?”

“You can call me Ladybug.”

Ladybug draws back. “Excuse me?”

“Ladybug,” he repeats. He gestures to his body. “Red suit, black spots, magic yoyo? Ring any bells?”

“I—”

“You’re shocked even though you seem to have expected this.”

“No, I realize you’re Ladybug. I just…you’re Chat Noir, aren’t you?” She shrugs. “Or well, a Chat Noir from an alternate universe, I mean.”

He looks uncomfortable as he confirms this.

“Why did you never change the name?” she wonders. “You had so many opportunities to be silly. Lad-bug. Mister Bug—” She giggles at that one. “Oh, I can see that one now. Someone calling you Ladybug and you being ridiculous and saying ‘Please, call me Mister Bug, Ladybug is my partner.” She shakes her head. “Why did you keep Ladybug?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He beams at her, pride in his green eyes. “Getting to be Ladybug’s legacy? Sounds like an honour. Changing the name is just silly.”

Ladybug shakes her head. “You’re more like…Chatbug.”

He blinks before smiling slowly. “You can call me Chatbug if that’s what you’d prefer.”

“I will.”

“Fine then.”

“So the portal?”

His smile fades away immediately. Ladybug feels guilty when he slips back into his cool demeanour and goes back to business. “Yes, the portal. I have it on good authority that the dark wizard is still keeping an eye on that chapel.”

Ladybug scowls at him. “And so you got rid of the people who would have gotten rid of _it_?”

“Why do you have to say it like that?”

“There is no other way to say it!”

“I’m keeping an eye on it. Don’t worry.” Chat Noir just waves a hand. “And besides, we can’t let the magical authorities get rid of it just yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s my only way home. And if what I’m thinking is right…” He looks around at the Parisian rooftops. They don’t see anyone else running around, but she imagines he has the same suspicions that she does. “I don’t think I’m the only one who slipped into this world.”

Ladybug nods. “Then I imagine the lot of you must have moved through space _and_ time. When did you arrive?”

Chatbug thinks back. “I came through the pool where you fell,” he admits. “I saw you and…me…walking away.”

“I thought I was going crazy. I thought I’d been seeing Ladybugs since last week,” Ladybug says. “And I’m starting to understand why.” Then she pauses, remembering her last interaction with one of them. “Wait, do you know—” She grimaces over the vandal’s tacky name, “Lady Noire?”

“Lady Noire?” Chatbug echoes.

“Another Ladybug, I think.” Then she frowns. “Sort of. No. Not at all, actually. She mentioned Plagg. That’s Chat Noir’s kwami, right?” 

“Plagg, huh?” The name does something to Chatbug, who smiles fondly before sadness drags him down. Ladybug considers his despondence before recognizing that for him to be Ladybug, he probably can’t be Chat Noir anymore. Glancing at his hand, she confirms that this is the case. Chatbug seems to realize what she’s thinking, because he soon he crosses is arms and keeps his fingers out of her view. “She’s probably like me then.”

“What do you mean?”

“From a universe where she was Ladybug temporarily, but soon became Chat Noir instead.”

“Why would that happen?” Then she purses her lips. “For any number of infinite reasons,” Ladybug reminds herself, “considering there is any number of infinite universes that exist out there.”

“Exactly.”

Ladybug sighs, knowing there’s no way she’ll figure out the answer to her question. Her stare slides to Chatbug. He looks thoughtful, like for once in his superhero career, he’s actually trying to make a plan rather than jump in, baton blazing, and think on the go.

“Why are you Ladybug in your world?” she asks carefully. Ladybug peers up at him, noting that he’s taller than Chat, his shoulders a bit broader, and his eyes just so much sadder. “You’re older than me,” she recognizes. “Did…does something happen to your...me?”

Chatbug swallows. There’s tension in his jaw, in every part of him really, and he seems to struggle to maintain eye contact.

“She’s gone…” Ladybug realizes. To be honest, she’d hoped that somehow he and Lady Noire were from the same dimension. Otherwise the truth is just too grim. “You’re Ladybug because—”

“Because I have to be.” Chatbug turns, launching his yoyo to go nowhere in particular other than away from her.

“Wait!”

“I’ll contact you when I’m ready to leave.” 

.

.

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.

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iv.

At this point, Ladybug understands what’s going on. Somehow making contact with that portal seems to have caused other versions of Ladybug to appear. The Ladybugs had to have been flipping between space and time. Otherwise, how else would she describe the ridiculous red and black robot perched on the Eiffel Tower, its chest adorned with a decal spelling LDY//BUG.

“Chat Noir would love this.” Ladybug approaches the robot and taps on the glass. “Um, hi, anyone in there?”

The screen lights up, showing:

I  A M  B U G B O T

“Um.” Ladybug doesn’t really know what to say. “What?"

“You didn’t even say ‘knock, knock’!”

Ladybug looks up and sees someone dangling from some rungs up in the dark.

“Who—”

Before she can even ask anything, the bugbot leaps up just as the person jumps down and lands on its back. When they’re both back in front of Ladybug, she’s shocked to find someone so _young_.

“Hello!”

Ladybug blinks, uneasy, because this girl can’t be that much older than Manon. She grins, showing off a missing front tooth, and the screen lights up with a bright red (^_^)/~ that leaves Ladybug frowning.

“You’re Ladybug!” the girl yells, reacting to her with the same enthusiasm most people her age have. She slides off the rounded front of her bugbot and grabs Ladybug’s hand, shaking it eagerly. “My name’s Em, but most people just call me M.”

So far the Ladybugs she’s pinpointed thus far (mostly in retrospect, unfortunately) have crashed into her and ditched her, antagonized her and ran away from her, and then asked for help before storming away from her. Somehow meeting this particular Ladybug leaves her feeling, well, better. Satisfied she isn’t going to find this interaction all too disgruntling, Ladybug grins.

“I suppose you can call me M as well,” she says.

M’s smile just grows wider. “I know that.”

“Oh?”

"I’m from the year 3019,” she begins sagely, "I’ve been LDY//BUG for a good year now. I come from a long, long, long line of superheroes, so when the hacker HM started wreaking havoc on the city, I knew it was my time to shine."

Ladybug nearly balks as she realizes this girl is about to go into the middle of a superhero origin story monologue. “We don’t have to do this,” she tries. 

“Of course we do!” M whispers, breaking character for a moment. M pulls out a yoyo (because _of course_ ) and begins playing with it as she continues her tale. “Now with the help of T-KI, the AI my mom designed to watch over me after she died, we’ve been piloting the bugbot to stop all of HM’s evil plans.” She jumps back on top of the bugbot and throws her hands in the air just as the bugbot’s own wings stretch out. “Together we are…LDY//BUG!”

\\(^o^)/ dances over bugbot’s screen. 

LDY//BUG holds their silly pose until Ladybug claps for them. She’s certainly impressed with M’s story. She prepares to ask more to look for any clues M might be able to provide about how to send her back, but soon she, like the other Ladybugs before her, is surrounded by those familiar black bubbles.

She’s so much smaller than all the others ones, and when the ring of darkness surrounds her, it covers nearly her entire body. She screams, scared and hurting, and the bugbot's screen scrambles through a series of pixels as it too suffers.

Ladybug tries reaching into the black bubbles, hoping maybe she can pull M out of her agony, but a force throws her back and to the other side of the platform. 

“M!” she yells, scrambling to her feet. She rushes to the girl and her bugbot's side, only for the bubbles to fade away when she gets there.

M looks up at her with wide, wet eyes that break Ladybug’s heart.

“What _was_ that?” she asks through a sniffle. 

“Oh, nothing,” Ladybug mumbles, recalling Bridgette’s explanation from the night they crashed into each other. She’s impressed with this other Ladybug for having figured out what happened so easily and so quickly. “Just, you know, the foundation of your being getting torn up and restitched back together to suit a dimension it shouldn’t be in…” She trails off, refusing to say the rest of what she’d heard.

“I didn’t like it,” M mumbles.

She shakes her head and turns back to the bugbot. It spreads its wings and M climbs in through the back to get to her little chair. She starts the engine, ignoring Ladybug’s order that she stay with her.

“I didn’t like it at all.”

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v.

Ladybug knows they’re all probably suffering, but it’s the recurring image of that little girl curled around her bugbot and whimpering that replays over and over in her mind. Ladybug muses over those black bubbles, and remembers that woman who she crashed into before, Bridgette, drunkenly babbling about how this was a result of her very being getting torn up over and over to suit this world. 

She would have helped no matter what, she always meant to, but seeing LDY//BUG like that sends Ladybug off to seek out Chatbug, rather than waiting for him to come to her.

When she lands in front of him, her resolve on her face, he almost smiles. “You found some more bugs, I take it?”

She shakes her head. “Just one. Although I don’t know where any of them ran off to.”

Chatbug taps his chin and then sighs. “I think I have an idea of where they might be. But before I tell you, I think we need to have a…” He launches his yoyo at the darkness and grins, “chat."

He pulls it back and looks pleased with his catch. 

“Chat Noir!” Ladybug exclaims, seeing her partner’s startled face. She pulls him out of Chatbug’s hold and onto his feet. “Were you _spying_ on me, kitty?”

“No?”

“Chat Noir.”

“Yes.”

“Ugh!”

“Only because you were running off with a strange man!” He stands between Ladybug and Chatbug. “Who are you?”

Chatbug cocks his head to the side. “I’m Ladybug.”

“Oh, very funny,” Chat Noir bites back. 

“But your lady has so kindly given me another name to go by to avoid any confusion.” The way Chat Noir bristles seems to amuse her counterpart, prompting Ladybug to roll her eyes. Why did the idiot insist on antagonizing _himself_? “For now,” he continues, “you can call me Chatbug.”

“Chatbug.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s…what?”

Chatbug shrugs. “I don’t love it either, but the lady gets what she wants.”

Chat Noir grumbles in agreement, so Ladybug glares at them both.

“Chat Noir,” she calls, “Chatbug is here because of that portal we came across last week. It’s summoned different versions of me, er, Ladybug, and so far I’ve come across four of them.”

“Oh, okay.” 

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” Chat Noir replies simply. “That’s cool.”

Ladybug raises an eyebrow. “You’re shockingly nonplussed about this, kitty.”

“Yeah. About that.”

Chat Noir rubs the back of his neck, a nervous tick Ladybug knows all too well. “What is it?” she asks, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“I kind of already know about the other Ladybugs.” 

Ladybug glances at Chatbug, who shrugs in turn. 

“Not him,” Chat Noir says. “But…” He sighs, and planting his hands on his hips, he looks up at the sky. “Look, I know the secret identities are supposed to stay, well, secret, but with the fate of multiple people from multiple dimensions on the line, can’t I just share this one little tidbit? Okay, I realize the identity part of secret identity is hardly little, but I mean _come on_.”

“Who are you talking to?” Ladybug asks.

“If you’re giving me an okay,” Chat Noir continues, not looking at anyone or anything in particular, “please give me a sign?”

Before any sign can come though, Chatbug mutters a “fuck it” and releases his own transformation. When the lights fade away, some version of Adrien Agreste stands before them with a very disapproving Tikki looming by his side.

“There,” he says, grimacing at Chat Noir and avoiding Ladybug’s startled eyes. “Now it’s not your fault.”

“Adrien!” this other Tikki shouts. “This is _not_ at all okay!”

“What—what—”

Chat Noir just looks back up at the sky. “Okay, that was definitely not the sign I was looking for, but good enough I guess. Thanks for trying, Plagg.”

“ _What_?”

Chatbug transforms back again and then gives Ladybug a shove in the direction of the Agreste mansion. “Multiverse now, panic later.”

“Oh, that’s easy for you to say!” 

No, Chat Noir— _Adrien_ —looks frantic, his green eyes wide with worry, and he’s folding in on himself. Ladybug nears him slowly and when he he’s finally looking at her, she pulls him into a hug.

“I don’t know if that’s what you wanted,” she says against his shoulder, “and I’m so sorry if it wasn’t.”

“No—I—” He sighs. “Technically, it’s what I was aiming for. I have to say, I pictured hundreds of scenarios where I revealed my identity to you, but I never expect any of them to go like that.”

Ladybug draws back, but Chat Noir’s hands are on her hips. “You’re one of my most precious people, Adrien Agreste.” She smiles at him. “No matter how the reveal goes, no matter who you are, you’re my best friend.”

“Thanks.”

Ladybug reaches up and begins playing with his hair. Chat Noir whines about it, but Ladybug shifts his bangs into how Adrien normally wears it.

“Huh,” she says thoughtfully. “Radiant.” Then she grins. “Carefree.”

He narrows his eyes and shoves her away. “Stop.”

“ _Dreamy_!” Ladybug bursts into laughter and despite his pout, Adrien joins in. He pulls her into something between a hug and a headlock and when Ladybug looks up at him, she finishes the ad she knows by heart by saying his name. “Adrien.”

“My lady.”

“Marinette.”

“Huh?”

She bites her lip as her giggles fade away completely. She’s nervous, not for herself, not for her feelings. No, she trusts Chat Noir and her will get on just fine. She thinks about everyone in her life who matters to her though and how scared she’s always been that knowing her secret might endanger them. She already started though, so there’s nothing she can do now but be honest.

“Marinette,” she repeats. “My name is Marinette.”

“I have a friend named Marinette—”

“Oh, please tell me you are not that dense!” 

Ladybug and Chat Noir glance to where Chatbug has been quietly waiting for them to have their moment. He’s gawking at Chat Noir, frustration apparent on his marked face. He tries to say something, but soon the black bubbles that have plagued all the different Ladybugs surrounds his arm and he’s screaming.

They both move to his side, holding him as he thrashes and groans in pain. 

“Come on,” Chat Noir says, adopting his counterparts serious tone. “Let’s take him to my house.”

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As it turns out, Chat Noir has been aware of the portal for a long time, largely because almost all of the other Ladybugs have been living with him for varying amounts of time. 

“You!” Ladybug exclaims, pointing at Lady Noire. She sits at Adrien’s desk, legs propped up as she flips through a magazine. She wears that same green hoodie, and Ladybug scowls when she realizes that _this girl_ is wearing _Adrien’s_ sweater. “What are you doing here?”

Lady Noire just turns to the next page. “Well, I got sucked into a portal that threw me into three weeks ago, and I figured I’d need a place for my catnaps.”

“How did you even know to find him?”

Lady Noire shrugs. “Well _my_ Adrien and I shared our identities with each other already.”

On the couch, she sees Bridgette, quite likely sober. This time she isn’t falling out of the sky or being brought down by black bubbles. She shrugs sheepishly. “And Chat Noir, whether he’s yours or one of ours—”

“He—he isn’t  _mine_!”

“—will never leave a Ladybug in need.”

Chat Noir winces. “You make me sound like a flirt.” He glances Ladybug’s way, an apologetic smile on his face, and Ladybug blushes beneath her mask.

Lady Noire stretches out with one clawed hand. “But you  _are_  a flirt.”

Chat Noir glares at her, looking furious and flustered all at once. “You leave me alone, dammit."

There’s a little giggle from up in the stacks, and when Ladybug looks up, she finds the bugbot from the night before and its pilot sitting on top of it. “Hey Ladybug!” The bugbot drops down to their level with its top open and M lands in her seat. “Chat Noir said I could crash here when he found me a few days ago. Did you know Adrien has a really cool bathroom?”

“I…knew that, yes.”

“You did?” Chat Noir pipes up.

Ladybug bites her lip. “Well, you, er, Adrien—whenever I would come looking for Adrien, he would always say he was taking a shower.”

“Doesn’t explain why you were in the bathroom too,” Lady Noire says oh so helpfully.

“Because I was looking for him!”

Bridgette is smirking at the floor, having the decency to stay silent, likely because she’s the only actual adult here, but Lady Noire seems to exist only to be annoying. “More like looking _at_ him, I’m sure.”

“Er.” Adrien’s ears are practically burning red. “I mean, you’re welcome to look whenever—” 

“Enough,” Chatbug interrupts. He’s leaning against the wall, one knee bent and his arms crossed over his chest. His brow is furrowed, like he’s been considering everyone in this room and what they should do next, and Ladybug falters when she realizes that should have been her. “Logic dictates that you’re all…other versions of Ladybug.”

“That’s right,” Bridgette says.

The bugbot’s face lights up:

 Y E P !

Lady Noire shrugs. “I mean, I only worked with Tikki for a week, but sure.”

“Then we all need to get out of here as soon as possible— _shit_!” He grunts, pain coursing through him, and when he looks down, there's sees a ring of black bubbles running over his body. Around the room, the same seems to be happening to the other Ladybugs.

Ladybug flounders helplessly, wishing there was a way she could help them right now. She takes a breath. “We need to send you all back to your original universes through the portal Chat Noir and I found the other day,” she explains. 

“After that, you need to destroy it,” Chatbug concludes. “Can you do that?”

“I, um, well, this isn’t the sort of thing we normally deal with, but magic is magic and…I think we can handle it.” She glances at Chat Noir, her partner, her best friend. “Right, kitty?"

“I know we can.” He leans against the side of the couch, crossing his arms and definitely trying to look as cool as the older version of himself just did. “We just have to fight off the minions, defeat the dark wizard, send the B, C, D, and E teams off to their respective dimensions—” 

“HEY!”

“—and then blow up said portal without giving into the temptation of seeing what the opposite scenario would be like.” He waves a hand and slants Ladybug a coy look. “I imagine a room full of Chat Noirs is one of your wildest dreams, right, my lady?”

“More like my biggest nightmare,” she teases, shoving him onto the couch. “Can you even use cataclysm on a liquid?”

“We’re about to find out!” He beams up at her, adoration in his eyes, and Bridgette smothers him with a pillow.

Lady Noire pushes everything off of the coffee table, ignoring Chat Noir’s shout of protest, and then lays out one of his gaming mats. 

Ladybug giggles. “Nerd,” she whispers.

Knowing it’s about to get worse, Chat Noir takes the pillow and smothers himself, drowning out the sound of Ladybug’s laughter as that evil cat uses his various action figures to plan their attack, including limited edition Ladybug and Chat Noir dolls.

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Later, when they’re finalizing the last parts of their plan, they’ve all released their transformations and are giving the kwamis some reprieve before going in for a battle. The various Tikkis munch on a plate of cookies while Plagg reluctantly shares his cheese with his own counterpart.

Marinette and Adrien sit on the edge of his bed. She looks at him and cocks her head curiously. “You’re awfully calm about this.”

“I’ve had three interdimensional Ladybugs hanging around in my bedroom for the past few weeks,” Adrien points out with a wry grin, “while the god of destruction and misfortunate has been living in my trash can for two years now, at that.” He waves a hand. “I suppose despite father’s complaints that all the anime I watch would rot my brain, it has aptly prepared me for this moment.”

“And me?” she wonders. “Were you prepared to find out Ladybug is--” She gestures to herself and she shrugs. Then she smiles, beaming because she’s strong and confident and she’s  _Marinette_. “Me?”

Adrien returns her smile. “I’ve been prepared since the day I watched you tell Hawkmoth you’d stop him no matter what.” 

He rests his hand on top of hers and Marinette turns hers over. Their palms touch, admittedly clammy in their shared nervousness, and then Adrien laces his fingers through hers. She squeezes his hand and somehow it just tugs at his heart.

“Looking back on everything, I don’t get how I missed, well,  _you_.” he shakes his head. “I’m so glad it’s you, Marinette.”

“Me too,” she replies. “I’m glad it’s you.”

They laugh, shaky and breathless and excited for what’s to come. Adrien leans forward, pressing his forehead against hers, and Marinette wraps her arms around his middle.

Their moment of calm is interrupted, however, by the sound of something falling off Adrien’s desk, followed by a clatter.

He jumps, a knee jerk reaction started by Plagg and perpetuated by Lady Noire in these past few weeks. 

“Are you two done?” she asks, drumming her claws on the desk. She transformed some time during their moment, and after scanning the room, Marinette realizes they all did. Lady Noire eyes the mess she’d swiped onto the floor with disinterest. “In case you’ve forgotten, we all need to get home and you two have a magical universe-hopping portal to destroy for us--”

Chatbug cuts her off with a tug at her braid. She yowls and swipes at him, but he dodges just fine. 

“Leave them be,” he orders in a tone Adrien knows is based on Ladybug. He stands straight and then begins moving towards the window. “We’ll go on ahead,” he tells Adrien and Marinette, before opening the window and jumping out. Bridgette follows after him, and then LDY//BUG launches out with a bang that makes Adrien wince. With a sigh, Lady Noire strides across the room, knocking things over in her wake just for fun, and then makes her way too.

When they’re alone, Adrien turns to her, and Marinette thinks he might kiss her. He’s considering it. She knows he is. His eyes dart to her mouth, and went she bites her bottom lip, he swallows. Then she starts to laugh, making him laugh too.

“Later,” she says, certain he knows what she’s talking about. 

She calls for Tikki and he calls for Plagg and when Ladybug and Chat Noir are standing before each other in Adrien Agreste’s bedroom, Ladybug grins.

“Ready to go save the multiverse, kitty?”

“Lead the way, my lady.”


End file.
